Spark
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: Months after the war ends, Sonic's buddy comes back to Resistance HQ bruised and beaten. Someone's after the once rookie and now it's up to Sonic and his friends to help her. But first things first; what even IS that kid's name? [post-Forces, may later reference the IDW comics?][one sided SonicxAvatar with slowburn][description may change]
1. Good-Bad Luck

**A/N:**

**I had an idea, can't say that it's a very good one. But I'm about five chapters in now so I might as well start posting it.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

There were a thousand ways this could have gone, but she was fairly sure that none of them would have been in her favor.

"Not so special now that the blue pest is gone, are you darling?" the dark violet colored Mobian bird chuckled as she made her way over. "It's been months since the war- and yet here you are, acting as if nothing has changed for you. Between _us_."

The once rookie of the Resistance just barely dodged out of the way as the other Mobian placed her foot on the ground- full intent on breaking the rookie's wrist. The bird only gave a cruel laugh and continued her sure path. It would have been smart, at this point, to get up and get the heck out of dodge. But that was just the thing- the rookie hadn't been expecting the other Mobian, and what a grave mistake it was. Everything hurt now. Oh blessed Gaia, it hurt so _much…_

"Has the war broken you that much?" the bird then mused. "Pretty little thing- you never did like conflict."

There was a flicker of a bitter sweetness in the bird's eyes before she delivered a rib cracking kick to the rookie's torso. In lieu of a scream, the rookie gave a distressed mewl. It only served to amuse the bird further.

"I see they didn't help you get your voice back. Pity. I almost miss the sound of your fear-filled babbling..."

The rookie prepared for another kick, but it never came. Instead, the bird Mobian bent down to get as close to the rookie's face as possible. The bird gave a nasty smirk before yanking on the rookie's ear, making sure that she had her attention- it elicited another desperate squeak from the helpless Mobian.

"The Eggman Empire will rise, with or without that fat old man." she then hissed. "And you're going to help me get the message out."

Of all the years the rookie had known this Mobian, that could only mean one thing. Thankfully, she had succumbed to the rest of her wounds before she received that blow to the head.

. . .

By the time she came to again, who knows how much time had passed since that encounter. The pain was still there but something felt off. Was she lying down? Why couldn't she move her body? She tried to wiggle a bit to get some of her bearings, but she was quickly greeted with a sharp pain on her side.

"She's waking up." a gruff voice said not far from her. It sounded familiar, but from where? "Go tell Knuckles."

"Right!" a much sweeter voice agreed in a determined tone. What followed were the sounds of the sweet voiced Mobian leaving and allowing a stiff silence to come through.

"You're lucky to be alive." the gruff voice mumbled. "Be prepared to hear it a lot."

She tried to offer a small nod of acknowledgment, but was quickly greeted with a splitting headache. If she didn't have bandages covering her head and eyes, she was sure she would have seen multicolored migraine-induced ribbons.

"Is she awake?" a new voice (Knuckles?) questioned as they and some other -possibly the sweet voiced Mobian- came into the room.

There was a very unhelpful grunt from the gruff voiced Mobian, but there were no other answers than that. Knuckles then gave a grunt of his own before moving closer to her. It took a few moments and soon the bandages fell away from the rookie's eyes. She had to squint a bit before her eyes adjusted, then she took a look around the room. Sure enough, beside her bed was the red echidna himself, holding the bits of her bandages in his hands.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." he greeted her with a smile. "We were hoping that you'd wake up soon."

We? The rookie looked around the room to only find two other Mobians there: Amy Rose (who was standing by the door with her hands clasped together) and Shadow (who stood by the window with his arms crossed and looking as pleased as usual). The rookie then turned her attention back to Knuckles- the look she gave him demanded answers.

"We got a distress signal from your communication watch." the echidna admitted. "The only one available to check it out was Shadow, and he found you in pieces. Almost literally!"

Curious, the rookie gave Shadow an inquisitive glance. It was rebuffed with an annoyed scoff and his attention diverted elsewhere. The rookie then turned her attention back to Knuckles, bidding him to continue the story.

"You've been here for about three weeks." he went on. He then gave her a guilty looking expression as he scratched the back of his head. "We thought we were going to lose you for a moment there; your rib cage had completely collapsed on itself, some of your cuts were so deep that the bleeding almost didn't stop, you barely had a pulse..." That was the moment Knuckles shook his head, as if trying to get a bad memory out, before starting to grin. "But now you're awake! We'll have to do a check-up, of course, but for now all you have to do is rest. We'll get you back up and running in no time, rookie!"

"Who did this to you?" Amy quietly asked as she moved a bit closer to the bed. If they had expected a verbal answer from the rookie, they must have easily forgotten that she was a mute. Even then, she had to think about it for a moment. A small moan escaped her lips when she remembered. She was dead. She was so, so dead when she found out…

"Was it Eggman?" Amy asked. The rookie shook her head- careful to not move too quickly in fear of another splitting headache.

"Infinite?" Knuckles then questioned. Another shake. This was when Shadow narrowed his eyes and moved closer.

"It was someone you knew."

The rookie turned to look him dead in the eye. She gave a small nod of agreement. Whatever mood Shadow was in worsened at knowing this.

"Who was it?" he demanded.

"Shadow!" Amy admonished. "She just woke up, you can't force her to…!"

Shadow flashed Amy a look so dark that the female hedgehog immediately shut up. With Amy silenced, Shadow turned back to the rookie.

"Who was it?" he demanded once more, this time in a much more annoyed tone. The rookie looked at him with some amount of fear before scanning around the room for something to write with. Knuckles was able to pick up on this and quickly withdrew the doctor's clipboard. The rookie gave a small nod of thanks, chose to ignore what the doctor's notes were, and (in an incredibly shaky and barely legible handwriting) wrote her answer in the general note section of the form;

_fay'lin_

_my boss_


	2. Nostalgic

**A/N:**

**While I may reference Kim Taeyeon's song Spark in both title and cover blurb for this fic, it's another song of hers, Find Me, that gives me more SonicxAvatar vibes. Or at least this Avatar. BTW we won't know her name until chapter 6. Sorry not sorry. In that time, go ahead and guess what it is; here a hint; it means prosperous/peaceful friend.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

Rehab would have been a lot nicer if Shadow wasn't constantly looming over her. He didn't even do anything of special note- he just stood there as if waiting for something. The nurse's rumors didn't help very much in the matter either.

"It's a part of his nature." the light blue-green Mobian cat grinned as she helped the rookie onto an elliptical machine. "They say he was created to heal the whole world. One drop of his blood and you'd be cured of any virus or bug you might catch, isn't that fascinating?"

Not to the rookie it wasn't. In fact, the mere notion of it sent a shiver up her spine. She was sure she must have had a blood transfusion done at some point, considering how much she lost, she just hoped the donor wasn't Shadow. It wasn't just because he was odd and (as other rumors went) part alien- it was because her body rejected Mobian hedgehog blood, and it wasn't even uncommon for it to happen either.

When the exercise portion of her rehab ended, the nurse led the rookie to the main room of Resistance HQ. A pang of nostalgia hit the rookie as they entered the room and saw nearly all of main members of the Resistance (Knuckles, Amy, Silver, Espio, Vector, and Charmy) waiting around. Out of no where she started to remember the first time she had been here. The war had been at its apex- Sonic had been missing for weeks and everyone was starting to lose hope. Team Chaotix were out on the field, helping any survivors in the scattered settlements and refuges. Had it not been for accidentally running into Espio, Chaotix would have never known she was there. In a whirlwind of circumstances that she could never remember to this day, the rookie had joined the Resistance; and shortly after that, rescuing Sonic from the Death Egg.

"There you are!" Knuckles greeted. "We were just talking about you."

Of all the things she could have said, the rookie just stood where she was- just now realizing that her nurse had left. At Knuckle's silent encouragement, the rookie made the decision to walk over to him; her knees shaking from either anxiety or the remains of her workout session. She didn't know, she just knew that it seemed to take far longer than it should have.

Like old times, they stood around a long tactical table, and she took her spot between Vector and Amy before looking around at the others. All eyes seemed to be on her, as if they ready for her to pass out or speak for the first time in years.

"Great to see you back on your feet, rookie!" Vector said first, giving her a hearty pat on the back. The force was enough to slam the rookie into the table, and hit in just the right spot that a short burst of pain went up her spine. Amy was quick to notice, casting Vector a nasty glare before wrapping an arm around the rookie

"You're still recovering," she said to the rookie, as if she didn't already know that, "Everything will be alright again before you know it!"

_It may _be_ alright again soon, but that doesn't stop the pain, Ames._

"Well, with Vector manhandling her like that, it would be amazing if she ever left the hospital." a new voice playfully mused at the doorway. Everyone turned to the newcomer and in a complete unison shouted,

"Sonic!"

Carefully moving herself around, the rookie kept her hands on the table to help steady her (somehow even worse than before) shaking legs. Sure enough, Sonic was there at the doorway- not looking any worse for wear and possibly in better spirits than anyone else in that room. For a moment the rookie felt the need to be envious of his good will.

"You got our message." Silver said, making it sound more like a question than a statement.

"Why wouldn't I?" Sonic bragged as he sauntered on over to them. "No one hurts my friends, not even war-forged ones."

Sonic locked eyes with the rookie and gave a firm smile as he walked over to her.

"How you doing, buddy?" he cheerfully asked, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

All eyes fell back on the rookie as they waited for her response. Even if she had one, it would have gotten stuck in her throat as she looked back at Sonic. She wasn't going to lie, seeing him for the first time in months made her heart accelerate. Had he always looked at her with those calm green eyes?

_So this is what Amy feels when she sees Sonic_, she thought. She immediately shook the idea away because it would mean only one thing, and she was _not_ ready to acknowledge it yet. There were far worse problems to take care of than that.

"Still tongue tied, eh?" Sonic then humored. "That's okay- I can do enough talking for both of us!"

The rookie let out a breath of relief that she didn't know she had been holding onto until now. Everything would be alright with Sonic here; that's what he did after all, right? Sonic was always there to make things better.

_The Eggman Empire will rise, with or without that fat old man._

A sudden wave of nausea hit the rookie's stomach- something everyone was able to pick up on.

"Buddy?" Sonic questioned, sounding so far off and yet stood right next to her. Her ears were ringing too loud to even try to focus on him or the others.

_Fay'lin wanted me to send the message; whatever it really is. It's been so long that I've forgotten what she was capable of. She won't stop until Sonic is dead. She didn't want to kill me then, she just wanted to draw Sonic out and…!_

"Buddy!" Sonic was calling her. He was holding her a bit rougher now with both his hands on her shoulders. She couldn't quite register it at first, if at all. Her mind was racing over why Fay'lin had decided to come back. Fay'lin didn't want her dead then, but now that Sonic was in a spot to be lured out, there would be no mercy. Around her, everyone was trying to make her respond to them. She couldn't answer them. She had no way too. She just wanted to get out of here. She needed to run away. She needed to… to…!

"Get out of the way!" a voice that sounded like an irritated Shadow demanded. The rookie was only faintly aware of her body being pushed around as Sonic argued with the other hedgehog.

"What do you think you're doing, Shadow?"

"Getting her back to the hospital room. Can you not see that she's shaking you idiot?"

"If it's any consideration, she was already like that when I got here."

There was growl from Shadow.

_Fay'lin... Fay'lin is going to… She didn't want to kill me then because I… but I... She'll kill me now. Fay'lin… Fay'lin will kill… She'll get…_

"I'll take her." Sonic decided. There was a sudden jolt in her brain when the rookie realized that she was being lifted off her feet. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around whoever's neck and held on as they ran so fast that a cold chill ran up her spine. For as long as she had known her, the rookie knew that Fay'lin was an incredibly dangerous foe when provoked. But that was the thing;

So was Sonic.


	3. The Currents

**A/N:**

**Shadad? Shadad.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

The first time she heard the same Sonic the Hedgehog, it had been some time after the Black Arms fiasco. Not that it had been Sonic's fight to bother with- but it was the excitement that came with the name that brought everyone she knew into a tizzy. She didn't even know what he _looked_ like until she was tasked with rescuing him from the Death Egg.

For some reason, knowing Sonic the Hedgehog wore hideously outdated red sneakers had never once occurred to her, nor was it ever mentioned by anyone else. Weird.

Sonic had proven himself to be brave and smart in the face of danger, and she found that she enjoyed that about him. It seemed so different than the dynamic she had come to expect after working with Fay'lin. There was just something in Sonic's eyes that held more concern and worry than he dared to let show. Together, they had performed the first double boost. It was fantastic, exhilarating, and it almost made her pass out from exhaustion shortly after. After every double boost, Sonic would purposely turn to her and give congratulations of making it through. She now knew why Amy was so enamored with Sonic now, and sheepishly she realized that she too had fallen for the blue hedgehog.

"She was having an anxiety attack." a voice growled, waking her from her post adrenaline induced sleepiness. "And all of you just stood there."

"And how would _you_ know that, Shadow?" another voice returned with a bit of dry humor laced in his tone. "You're a bit too old to be her dad, aren't you?"

That was when the second voice gave a light, well humored laugh and the first voice gave a noise of disgust. Curious now, the rookie worked to open her eyes to see who was in the room with her. Her heart stopped for a moment to see both Sonic and Shadow at the foot of her bed. They hadn't even noticed she was awake yet. Maybe if she could close her eyes again…

As if reading her thoughts, Shadow looked her dead in the eye. "She's awake again." To Sonic he said, "Don't make her regress, or everything will get worse before it gets better."

Sonic gave the other hedgehog a curious tilt of his head before inquiring, "If you don't mind me asking Shads- why do _you_ care? Are you her dad? Now _that_ would be pretty interesting, don't you think? You! A Dad! Hahahaha!"

Shadow's look only darkened as Sonic went into another joyous belly laugh. Despite herself, even the rookie gave a small chuckle. It was seeing Shadow's cold, dark glare that made her stop. Shadow then pushed past Sonic to leave; before he did, he turned back to look at the rookie. It felt like he was checked her for something- as if he had expected something.

He then turned to Sonic to bitterly hiss, "You've never seen a dead child before." and with that, Shadow was gone.

"Hmm…" Sonic mused once he was sure Shadow was out of earshot, "It's not like Shadow to be the cryptic type; let alone get that dark. You know anything about that, buddy?"

She didn't, so she gave an indifferent shrug. Sonic gave a shrug of his own before heading to her beside. For the first time since she'd known him, Sonic sat down. He wasn't without fidgeting though- his feet rapidly tapping against the linoleum as if they were rigorously knocking on a door instead.

"Heard you almost didn't make it." Sonic mused before his eyes drifted to the bedside table. Sitting out in the open were doctor's notes, detailing the rookie's medical journey from when Shadow first found her to now. His expression changed for a moment as he read it before turning back to her, his smile returning no less brighter than before.

"Good thing you pushed through, otherwise I would have lost one of my favorite running partners!"

The rookie sank a bit in embarrassment. She had a distinct feeling that she was Sonic's only running partner. For now, any way. He had a knack of making friends with a whole motley crew of folks, Mobian and human alike.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" he then suggested, getting back up again to walk over to the other side of the bed, "Once you've got the all clear to get out of here, let's go on an adventure- just us two! We can go anywhere you want, how about that? Any where has got to be better than just sitting here!"

For a moment, the rookie recoiled in thought. Going on an adventure with just Sonic and no fear of being followed by a mad doctor and illusion master? It sounded tempting, but…

Fay'lin…

She looked back up at Sonic, realizing that he was offering his closed fist out for a fist bump; but she looked at it for a moment before limply holding up her preferred fist bumping hand- it was connected to two different IVs and the EKG machine. Seeing it, Sonic put down his hand and gave an amused smirk.

"Maybe a rain check on the fist bump front." he teased. "But I mean it; anywhere you want, just let me know, 'kay?"

_If Fay'lin doesn't kill us first_, she thought to herself. But to Sonic, she put on a forced smile and gave a small nod of agreement.

. . .

Sonic stayed around to tell the rookie about his adventures since they last met up, leaving only when prompted by the nurse.

"She needs to get her rest," she had reminded both Sonic and the rookie, "Now get out."

Giving the nurse some sass, Sonic left the room without having to be told twice. But he didn't go far. Instead, Sonic waited for the nurse to come back out of the rookie's room to ask some rather nagging questions.

The nurse seemed a bit surprised to see Sonic still standing there, but it didn't seem to effect her mood much.

"How can I help you Mr. Sonic?" the nurse sweetly asked.

"I want to know about my friend in there; you think you can help me get some answers?"

The nurse gave him a knowing smile, as if she had anticipated as much. "Shoot." she permitted.

"What's her name?"

For a moment, the nurse blinked. "You don't know?" she then questioned. "You two helped defeat Eggman and you don't know her name?"

"It kinda slipped my mind." the blue blur admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "I hear being in the middle of war tends to rush things."

"As if you don't already to that." the nurse snorted. Sonic gave a small smirk of agreement before returning to the matter at hand.

"So, even if _we_ don't know her name, she could tell us… Right?"

"If she wasn't a mute? Of course."

Something about this didn't sit right with Sonic, so he asked, "Is there anything we can do about her voice? Or, I guess more accurately, the lack of."

"Her vocal cords are scarred and the larynx possibly damaged beyond repair." the nurse informed him. "But with a tablet and a good text-to-speech app, that can be solved easily. For good measure, everyone might want to take a few courses on basic sign language- it'll come in handy even if it wasn't already a necessity."

Sonic gave a nod of agreement; he'd have to remember that for later. But then that only left one more question.

"You said her vocal cords were scarred… Was it recent?"

"Oh, no!" the nurse refused, making a face as if Sonic had told her a bad joke. "They're old scars, several years maybe. From what we could gather, they were caused by something internal. Why?"

"Just a thought." Sonic shrugged. "Thanks." And with that, the blue blur was gone.


	4. Setting Their Plans

**A/N:**

**Dunno how I'm going to do this story after we deal with Fay'lin. (Don't worry to much, we've got at least 7 more chapters to go- chapters 8 and 9 will be particularly _shocking_.) Like, I could make it a story that never really ends or something. I don't quite like that idea, but it would be better than starting a new story and forgetting about it when that creative spark (no pun intended) dies. Start a debate about it in the reviews, I won't be mad.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

Fay'lin never bothered to learn her underlings' names. Why bother? They were not her friends, and so many of them were too incompetent to live past the next sunrise. There had even been a rumor, not so long ago, that she only hired the most unluckiest of Mobians- ones who were destined to die regardless of their stature. It wasn't even remotely a secret among her ranks that she purposely sent others just to die in an open field by some lunatic. It was with a near perfect accuracy too; no one would survive if Fay'lin wanted them dead.

Well… except for one.

That one Mobian, the very one that helped Sonic the Hedgehog defeat Doctor Eggman and his creation Infinite, had only served to be a thorn in Fay'lin's side. It was like the thing _refused_ to die. It was because of Fay'lin that their team had died, knowingly placing them in the way of Infinite's wrath just so she, herself, could make a break for it. What she didn't count on was for Infinite to leave a survivor behind- what she now recognized had been his calling card and another pain to her side.

When Fay'lin wanted someone to die, they _will_ die. There were no exceptions. All she needed now was some time to prepare- even the best made assassins were not above a tactical rendezvous with their next target…

. . .

"So you think you can do it Tails?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?" the yellow dual-tailed fox snorted. "It's just a simple OS upgrade with a slightly different interface to display a holographic dual screen!"

Sonic had not understood a single word his friend had said, but gave a nod of understanding regardless.

"How long do you think it will take?" he then decided to ask. His foot was started to tap at this point, to no insult intended toward Tails.

"A week?" his friend guessed. "Maybe a little longer than that; I've got other projects I need to work on too."

"Take your time buddy." Sonic urged. "I don't think she's going to be admitted for another month."

This was when Tails looked at his friend in confusion. "She?" he asked before suddenly remembering something. "Oh! You mean-"

"Yeah." Sonic nodded. "Her."

"Have you found anything else about her?"  
"Nope. Nothing."

"Nothing?" Tails repeated with no attempt to hold back his surprise. "As in, absolutely nothing in all that searching you've done?"

"The very same." Sonic agreed with an annoyed huff. He folded his arms in thought before going on, "I've searched all the towns I've come across and no one seemed to recognize her. Then there's that person she said was her boss, Fay'lin, I've managed to get Rouge to help but I have yet to hear back from her. It's really bugging me that no one even knows who she is, Tails."

"Who? Our friend or the person she used to work with?"

Sonic looked up at his friend with a grave expression. "Both." he admitted. "I think I can get our buddy talking if her nurse will let me take on her out for half a day or so; just some time to get away from everything. Maybe a picnic, I dunno."

"A… picnic?" Tails repeated with some humor to his voice. He was ignored for the time being as Sonic went on.

"Then there's that whole deal with that Fay'lin chick. The fact that we can't find her is worse than not knowing a friend's name. Do you think you could figure something out Tails? If anyone is able to find that kind of stuff..."

"It would be Rouge." Tails smirked. "I'm a tech guy, just not that kind of tech. Not usually."

Sonic turned to his friend and gave him a friendly pat on the back. "And you're good at it pal. Keep me updated on anything you might find, alright?"

"You know it." Tails agreed. Giving his friend a thumbs up of approval, Sonic was out the door within the next heartbeat.

After meeting up with Tails, Sonic went ahead with the rest of his agenda and tried to find his hunt down friend's nurse. He started by the hospital rooms- it was with some measure of surprise and amusement that he saw Shadow there instead. The familiar brooding hedgehog leaning against the wall with his arms folded, right next to the entrance to the rookie's room; he seemed to be resting, or at the very most, he seemed secure enough to close his eyes.

"Hey Shadow!" Sonic hollered, wanting to get the other's attention more than keeping to himself. Shadow flinched, coming out of whatever peace he had, and turned to glare at the blue blur.

"You know," the younger of the two then went on to tease, "They _do_ allow parents and legal guardians to stay in the room with the patient. Unless you're stalking her, of course, then we may have to duke it out right here and now."

Shadow gave his rival an unblinking glare as Sonic went into a friendly fighting stance. The dark colored hedgehog eventually rolled his eyes to retort, "I'm not stalking her."

"Then what _are_ you doing?"

For this, Shadow turned his attention away from Sonic. After a few moments he admitted, "I'm waiting."

"For what?"

"For you to leave." came the answer with a delivery so quick and precise that Sonic was almost impressed. But it was effective, and the young hedgehog certainly got the message.

"I plan on coming by later anyway," Sonic mused with a wave of his hand. "Just don't do anything that will catch the nurses' attention. Or touch her at all, for that matter."

To this, Shadow gave an indignant huff. "Almost sounds like you like her." he mused. There was a flicker of something in his smirk after that; humor, maybe, or irony.

"She's my friend," Sonic said to him, honest and sincere, "And no one hurts my friends."

. . .

Dark colored plumage was an admirable attribute to a Mobian dedicated to staying in the shadows. Fay'lin took extensive care of her dark violet, red, and black feathers- she took better care of them than the unfortunate Mobians that belonged in her 'care'. Even now, as she stood just out of earshot to a conversation between Sonic the Hedgehog and some nurse, Fay'lin found herself picking off flakes of dust that landed on her beautiful feathers. How was _this_ considered a hospital when everything was just so _dusty_?

Her waning patience was rewarded, however, as Sonic and the nurse gave her the exact details she was waiting for.

"I want to take her out some place quiet. Somewhere where she can relax a bit, you follow?"

"But where are you going to take her Mr. Sonic? Green Hill is still sandy, Metropolis is still undergoing major repairs..."

There was a small silence as the blue hedgehog thought it over. "Christmas Island." he decided.

"Isn't it awfully cold there?"

Sonic shook his head. "The opposite; it's a nature preserve now. It'll be quiet and we can be back in a few hours. But we're not going now, I want Tails to do something to our friend's watch first."

A small silence followed as the nurse thought it through. She have seen nothing wrong with it because she said, "As long as you two are back before sundown (on _this_ continent), then you can go."

Fay'lin gave a wide, sinister smile as she left her hiding place. That was all she needed to hear to finally set her plan into motion.


	5. Sonic: Substitute Nurse Extraordinaire

**A/N:**

**Fist Bump, the song, is a _lot_ funnier if you think of it as a love song tbh...**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

It was odd how easily you could fall into a routine. Her days were very much the same as she continued to recover; wake up, the nurse gave her some medicine, she ate, then there was exercises, then a check up, lunch, a small nap if she needed it, that sign language class everyone was required to take now, another round of medicine, and then usually by that time dinner was ready. So, when she woke up one morning and Sonic was there by her bed, it was to little wonder that the rookie found herself surprised by his intrusion.

To get his attention, the rookie leaned over and tugged on his arm a bit. Suffice to say that he was surprised to know that she was awake.

"Hey partner!" he greeted with a wide smile. "I was just reading over what the doc had to say about you. Did you know that you were considered clinically dead for five whole minutes? Scary stuff."

The rookie gave a small shiver at the thought, but then she turned to Sonic and gave him a rather disapproving look.

"What am I doing here?" he then guessed. "Well, that's easy- I'm taking you out!"

Taking her… out? She didn't mean to, but the rookie blushed. There's no way he had meant it like that, no way at all…

Sonic gave her a smile at her bashfulness before clarifying. "I got the okay to take you somewhere else today. Guess who has a new nurse!"

Well, _hello_ nurse.

"Come on," Sonic then told her, helping the rookie to her feet, "We've got to make some house calls first."

Knowing that Sonic would not stop until he had her attention, the rookie worked with him in getting off the medical bed. A day or so ago, the doctor had decided that she no longer needed to be connected to the EKG machine, so the two did not have to pull out any wires from her body. The rookie reached for the spot on the bedside table where she usually placed her watch, but found with a sudden shock that it wasn't there.

"Don't worry about your watch," Sonic said to her, "I gave it to Tails for some updating. I think you're going to like it."

She looked up at him and gave a small look of dejected distrust. Sonic laughed at her, must to her mild annoyance. The rookie puffed up her chest and started to head out the door- her movements purposeful and trying to spite the blue hedgehog. Unfortunately, her balance was still a bit off (noticeable when she would pick up her foot for a moment), causing Sonic to laugh at her even more.

"I could carry you if you want." he mused, walking beside her with his hands behind his back and his mouth formed into a teasing smirk. The rookie gave him a dark glare before waving an absent hand at him in dismissal.

_I can walk on my own, thank you, oh ye of little faith._

Sonic playfully rolled his eyes; she was still as determined now like she was during the war. You had to admire that about a person. However, just watching her wobble a bit whenever she picked up her foot was a bit annoying, and it sure as heck wouldn't get them anywhere fast. Without asking for permission, Sonic slipped his arm through one of hers; effectively making himself her own personal crutch.

He chose not to notice how red his friend's face became- it was a lot like that look Amy got when she got all love struck around him. He was just being a good friend; what was so embarrassing about that?

. . .

Tails had been waiting for the duo in his workshop. As the young genius had predicted, the upgrades Sonic had wanted took only two hours to implement. When Sonic and his war-forged friend entered Tails's workshop, the twin-tailed fox didn't notice them at first- far more invested in an engine upgrade for the Tornado. It took Sonic not one, not two, but three attempts to get Tails's attention by giving a rather generous underhanded cough. It was only when Tails himself turned around to see Sonic and the rookie waiting there that he noticed them at all.

"Oh, hey guys!" he happily greeted. "How long have you been waiting?"

"Way too long." Sonic smiled. "How are those requests going?"

Tails gave a little snort as he went to his toolbox. "Psht, please, I told you it was going to be easy. Next time give me a bigger challenge!" From his toolbox he pulled out the rookie's watch that looked no different than before. He then walked back over to Sonic and the rookie.

"Which hand's your dominate?" Tails asked the rookie. The rookie then carefully shook one of her hands from side to side, meaning that she was slightly ambidextrous. Knowing this, Tails then rephrased his question, "Which hand do you usually put your watch on?" to which the rookie held up her left hand. Tails gave a small nod and attached the watch onto the rookie's wrist with very little trouble.

"Sonic's instructions were very clear, buddy," Tails then instructed her, "I've made the grapple chain in your watch much more fluid, allowing for faster chain reactions and hopefully greater momentum to take down bigger enemies that much easier. I was also able to broaden the communication range of your watch; you have a direct line to Resistance HQ, and anyone else you may want direct contact with- like me or Sonic. And there was one other thing..."

Tails then moved in a bit closer, holding up the rookie's watch and pointing to a certain button on its side.

"See that button? It was something I added to help you talk. For now it's off, but when you want to turn it on, just push it and then your watch will start to send electromagnetic pulses through your body. The watch will translate these pulses into what would normally be spoken sentences. Think of it as reading your mind in a way. Any 'spoken' thoughts you have will be displayed on a separate screen so all of us can read it. It even supports emojis! It'll be like you have a voice again buddy!"

Having lost her at 'electromagnetic pulses', the rookie gave Tails a confused look, and then gave Sonic a look of helplessness. The blue blur had been paying even less attention and gave her a small shrug in return. The rookie looked back at Tails.

"Try it out." Tails encouraged.

For a moment, the rookie hesitated while biting her lower lip in thought. She found herself giving in as she started to press the small button. Her watch gained a new notification that the function was working, which meant that she had to consider her words before 'saying' them now. There were so many things to say, what on earth would she start with?

But then she remembered something; something that she had always wanted to say since she had met Sonic. She looked over to the blue blur, and with an amused smile, a small holographic screen appeared by her shoulder with a message that read, 'I hate your shoes.'

Sonic's expression changed at least three times as he tried to decipher the odd comment. He then gave a small nod of defeat mixed with a bemused chuckle.

"Well," he mused in between amused snorts, "We _would_ have liked your name first before criticizing my footwear; it's kinda what you do when being properly introduced."

A genuine laughter escaped from the rookie's lips. It was then when Sonic realized that he (or anyone else in the Resistance for that matter) had heard a genuine laugh of any kind come from her. It was a small, broken laugh that didn't last very long before it exhausted its user, but that was almost to be expected after all.

In that moment, Sonic promised himself that he'd do whatever it took to make sure she laughed again; genuinely, happily, and without restraint. It was the least he could do for one of this closest friends.


	6. Formal Introductions

**For the fun of it, I've been recording some cutscenes from Forces (mostly ones with Sonic and the Avatar because _ya know_) and going through them frame by frame. It's fun. It's also super funny. There's so much clipping and dumb expressions you wouldn't see otherwise.**

** 10/10 IGN, would play again.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

"You all ready pal?" Sonic asked with some amusement as the rookie fiddled with her watch. Tails had put it back on her too tight, and now it was started to rub against her fur in very unkind ways. She had to adjust it before doing anything else- had to!

Once satisfied, the rookie gave a small smile before looking up at Sonic. That was when she noticed his cheeky smile, decided that she hated it, and gave him a punch on the shoulder.

"What did I do now?" he playfully questioned.

The rookie continued to glare at him as a message appeared next to her, 'You're making fun of me.'

"No I wasn't." Sonic argued, despite his smile never coming off. The rookie recoiled, wondering why he had read her thoughts before remembering her watch's new feature. Every time she would have talked, a small holographic screen appeared next to her (or sometimes even in front of her, depending on how she was addressing the person in question) that told everyone what she wanted to say. Suffice to say, it was taking some getting used to.

"Come on buddy, we're wasting daylight." Sonic then impatiently reminded her as he started to tap his foot.

'Where are you going?'

That was when the blue hedgehog gave a cocky smile. "Not telling." he told her. In a movement far too quick for the rookie to stop him, Sonic picked her up bridal style. "But I _can_ show you."

Knowing that there was no stopping him now, the rookie tightened her hold around his neck a bit- an act that permitted him to go. Sonic didn't need to be told twice, taking off in the blink of an eye into the unknown.

The rookie could do nothing but hold on to Sonic as he ran. He was moving too fast for her to even see where they were going; even then, when they started to tread water, bits of sea spray forced her to bury her face into Sonic's neck. She wasn't sure how Sonic did it. From the time it took them to go from the hospital to Sonic's gradual stop, it had only taken about five minutes.

"How was that?" Sonic boasted as he gently helped her get her feet back on the ground. "Better than a double boost, right?"

But the rookie trying to stand on shaking feet proved otherwise. At least after a double boost she only felt tired, but after being carried by Sonic? You might as well had knocked out her kneecaps.

"Still too early for you to be out, huh?" Sonic mused. "Don't worry, this isn't that grand outing I promised you earlier- today's just a day to do something different, that's all."

'You didn't have to sweep my off my feet.'

Sonic gave a small snort before replying, "But you weren't expecting it, were you?"

Suddenly, everything in the rookie's body froze. Did she really say that? Or, did the watch say it for her, Or… or _whatever_ just happened?!

"Hungry?" Sonic asked. The rookie looked up and saw that he was now holding two chili dogs; one for him and one for her, she assumed. Before she tried to question where he had gotten it, she remembered that he was the fastest thing alive; he probably went to some place halfway across the world and back again while she was freaking out.

The rookie gave him a wary side glance before taking the chili dog from him. She sat down on the grass around them and started to nibble a bit at the bun. It was here she realized that she hadn't had bread -real, baked bread still warm from the oven- for ages. Without any second thoughts, the rookie started to scarf down the chili dog and ended up nearly choking in the process.

"Whoa there buddy," Sonic said as he tried to pat her back, "You _eat_ chili dogs, not breathe them in."

All the rookie could do was give an agreeing nod. For a fleeting moment she thought of Shadow. Did she need him to give CPR? No, no she didn't. Her coughing and hacking helped the chili dog go down the right pipe this time. With that crisis resolved, the rookie flopped down on her back and stared up at the sky.

She didn't realize it until now, but Sonic had taken them to something almost like a tropical jungle. The trees were tall and wide enough that they almost blocked out the sun, a small lagoon was near them that contained its own little island- in the center of the island was a cherry blossom tree, of all things, with the leaves and petals gently falling off and into the lagoon below. Even more shocking than all of that was the fact that Sonic was right there beside her, _sitting down_. He had his hands behind his back, giving him a better view of the treetops as he seemed to be thinking of some place far off.

"You know buddy," he eventually said, "I don't think you've ever told me your name."

Still on her back, the rookie turned to Sonic and gave a small frown. Above her, the holographic display questioned for her, 'Never?'

"Never." Sonic agreed. "Guess we were all so caught up in kicking Eggman's butt, we forgot to properly introduce ourselves."

The fastest thing alive then stood back up. Curious, the rookie sat up as well. Sonic turned to her and offered out a hand- it was with some shock that the rookie realized that he was going through the motions of how they first met. Back on the Death Egg after he had just saved her butt from being cornered by three Egg Pawns, he hadn't wasted any time then, and he certainly wasn't wasting time now either.

"Hi, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." he greeted with a grin, moving a bit closer for her to reach his hand. She gave him an odd side glance before accepting his hand.

'Winnie.' the holographic screen said for her as she let Sonic help pull her to her feet. Sonic looked surprised for a moment before his usual cocky smile returned.

"The pleasure is mine, Winnie." he replied. "But, uh… It's got to be short for something, right? There's no way your parents let your get away with _that_ as your full name."

She gave a nod of agreement. 'But you have to guess it' the message beside her read. Sonic gave a wide smirk that indicated that he would have enjoyed the challenge.

"Well then…" he then decided to muse, "Are you a Win… ona?"

She shook her head.

"Win… dixie?"

Another shake.

"Win… ifred?"

She nodded and Sonic just looked at her for a moment.

"Winifred." he repeated. "That's your name?"

Suddenly feeling self conscious at the question, her nod this time was a bit smaller.

"Huh..." the hedgehog then mused, mostly to himself. "My real name's Maurice (named after my great-uncle on my mom's side). It's kinda pathetic when you're the coolest one of your friends, and yet you got stuck with the most boring name in existence. It's why I changed it when I could- no disrespect to my old man and birth giver, of course."

Winnie shot Sonic a wide eyed look of surprise. For some reason it had never actually occurred to her that someone's parents wouldn't call them 'Sonic' at birth. In this world, it almost seemed obvious. Obvious enough to her, anyway; next you'd be telling her that Shadow's real name is Jerry!

"And if you dare tell anyone, I'll homing attack your face." he then threatened. Seeing her continued surprise, he dialed it back a bit to apologetically add, "Which would be an absolute shame 'cuz you got a pretty nice looking one."

Unsure of how to take it, Winnie allowed the message 'Thanks?' to display. And so, Sonic the Hedgehog was now properly introduced to his war-forged buddy Winifred. Now what?

Fay'lin -who remained still in the background, listening in on them- knew _exactly_ what.


	7. There ARE Therapists Here

**Imagine... every time Sonic and the Avatar fist bump, they're actually kissing... jk lol... but what if…?**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

Sonic had taken several laps around the island as Winnie took a moment to rest. Occasionally, Sonic would find himself just saying her name at the tip of his tongue; playing with it, wondering why it took so long to even ask after all that time they spent together. It's not like he assumed she didn't have a name- it was more like he thought he did know it, but then forgot it quickly after in lieu of a fun nickname. _That_ sounded more like him. It still made him feel bad, though.

Odd how Winnie herself never seemed to notice this either.

After his twentieth lap around the island, Sonic came back to where he had left Winnie and realized that she was awake now. She stood by the lagoon, looking up at the cherry blossom tree with a faint smile on her face. Winnie reached a hand out for a few cherry blossoms that where heading in her direction; Sonic found himself smiling as the blossoms fluttered through her fingers, tickled the side of her face like little kisses, then flew past her against the upwind draft.

"Hey Winnie," Sonic spoke up, surprising the other Mobian out of her trance, "Wanna race?"

Seemingly confused for a moment, Winnie just looked at him until his request clicked. She looked down at her upgraded watch -a small part of her realizing that she hadn't tested out the new grappling chain yet- before looking back up at Sonic with a nod and a wide smile.

"On my mark." Sonic told her, getting into his running start position. "One… Two..."

Either out of nervousness or wanting to surprise him, Winnie took off just moments before he uttered, "Three." Now it was his turn to be confused for a moment before letting out a hearty chuckle and taking off after her.

Meanwhile, Winnie was learning incredibly quickly what Tails meant when he said that he had adjusted the return rate of the grappling chain. She had far more momentum now to swing to higher branches of the trees above her, and she could grab onto the next tree just seconds after releasing the chain from the first. The Mobian was having so much fun near flying through the trees that she had lost track of Sonic easily, no longer knowing if he was behind, ahead, or even right below her. Only Chaos knew how long she spent up high in the trees before slowly coming back down to the ground. She landed with a photo finish- too bad no one was around to see it.

"What excellent form, darling."

Winnie's heart stopped as she wildly looked around. There was no way, no way it could have been…

"I'm right here." a voice teased in her ear as her attacker held Winnie's hands behind her back. Winnie desperately tried to wiggle out of the person's grasp, but it came to no avail. She didn't have to look behind her to know that Fay'lin was the one holding her. In fact, she even refused to look behind her. Instead, Winnie tried to cry out, but with her forever broken voice, all that came out was a feeble squeak.

"It must be so scary, being so broken inside that you can't even scream..." Fay'lin hissed, a dark smile drawing upon her lips. "Don't worry darling, we're just waiting for Sonic now. Until then, we have all the time in the world to just talk."

Fay'lin twisted Winnie's wrist, making sure that she wasn't going anywhere, netting another distressed squeak from the Mobian.

"I've been following you." Fay'lin shamelessly admitted. "I've seen how that blue rat has been treating you. I've seen the way you react to his kindness too. You like that pest, don't you dear?"

Winnie tried to look away from Fay'lin in some act of feigned denial, but that was exactly the answer the bird Mobian wanted. Then Fay'lin said something that send an unnerved crawl up Winnie's back; "Infinite liked you too. That's why he let you live. _Twice_."

"Of course," the bird then mused, "I have no such pleasantries toward you, my little _waif_. You were supposed to die that first time and _stay_ down. And yet, here we are..."

That was when Fay'lin noticed Winnie's watch, and with a single, swift motion, she removed the device and pocketed it for later. Winnie gave a small whimper now- even if she had a way to communicate that she needed help, she definitely couldn't now.

"Boy, that fastest thing alive is sure taking his sweet time finding us." Fay'lin yawned. All off Fay'lin's monologue stalling was making Winnie more anxious. What was this crazy bird (quite literally) trying to do? If it was just Sonic she wanted, why was she letting Winnie live?

"Do you even remember the first time I wanted you to die?" Fay'lin then mused, almost resting her head against Winnie's shoulder. "I have found so many ways to get rid of our own kind; and in those years I've found that I hardly ever forget the methods themselves. For you, the first time, it was in a bomb raid of a popular dive bar. You were the entertainment that night- distracting the patrons from the suicide bomber in their midst. No one was none the wiser." Fay'lin twisted Winnie's whole arm this time, causing a pain so awful that the Mobian went down to her knees. The bird got even closer to Winnie's ear, her hissing whisper almost poison as she spat, "You were supposed to lose your _life_ that night, not your _voice_."

A single tear ran down Winnie's face as she accepted her fate. From the corner of her eye, she happened to see a blue streak that quickly turned a corner toward their direction. That streak leaped into the air, forming a more ball-like shape before landing on Fay'lin- knocking the bird out of Winnie's grasp.

"I don't know _who_ you are," the very peeved voice of Sonic the Hedgehog announced, "But _no one_ hurts my friend like that."

Her arm pulsing in hurt, Winnie craned her neck to see Sonic standing in front of her; effectively making himself a barrier between her and Fay'lin. If she wasn't in pain right now, Winnie would have hugged him. The knock back was only a temporary distraction for Fay'lin as she struggled back onto her feet.

"I wouldn't do anything too drastic, hedgehog." she growled, her eyes holding no emotion as she held up a pistol. Seeing it make Sonic smirk.

"Hate to break it to you," he shot, "But 'outrunning a bullet' is on my skill list. Comes with the name Sonic, if you weren't aware."

"Who said I would aim at you?"

Sonic studied Fay'lin for awhile before her warning clicked. He gave Winnie a quick concerned side glance before turning his attention back to Fay'lin. Sonic then masked a bit of his horror with a grin.

"You're _really_ messed up lady." he teased. "You know we _do_ have therapists in this world; the Resistance knows quite a few if you want one."

"The only doctor I ever want to see is Eggman leading the great Eggman Empire." Fay'lin spat. "But at the moment, he's a bit missing, you see."

"Oh, so you're one of _those_ people. Yeah, you're right, you are kinda beyond hope if you actually _trust_ that masochist."

Fay'lin's gaze lowered in contempt, the hate in her eyes growing. Shaking, Winnie put her hand around Sonic's ankle and looked up at him in worry. Sonic looked down and met her gaze. Without her even saying a word, he knew what she was trying to say; don't do anything stupid. Just listen to her. For now.

He looked back at Fay'lin with his own level of hate. "What do you want?" he questioned.

A malicious smirk crossed Fay'lin's lips. "I want you to turn around." she told him. Rolling his eyes, Sonic did as he was told. Fay'lin then looked Winnie dead in the eye as she started to raise her pistol. "Now, I want you to say 'good night.'"

"Good night?" the blue blur repeated with some amusement. The next moment, his whole body was convulsing as an electric current so high that he immediately lost consciousness after. Winnie let out a loud, fearful mewl as the hero hit the ground; with some relief she found that he was still breathing. She then looked at Fay'lin as the Mobian prepared her modified pistol once again.

The last thing Winnie was aware of was Fay'lin sinister laughter before the world went black.


	8. Electric Water Torture

**A/N:**

** Anyone else notice how dark the Sonic comics can get? And I don't mean just Archie's multiple continuities (I'm looking you Super Genesis Wave), I mean IDW with the whole infection arc is just freaking _terrifying_. The worst part is that I'm so poor, I have to wait for the collected volumes to come out, then wait for our library to get a copy so I can get caught up.**

**Suffice to say, the whole Infection arc makes me sick to my stomach because I don't know what's going on yet. X_X**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

The world around her was so dark, Winnie wondered if anything even existed here. As she tried to get some sense of being, she became aware that Shadow was ahead of her. The hedgehog's expression was still and his arms were crossed. He was waiting for her. Or… maybe she had called him here? She couldn't remember and trying to think hurt too much. She just wanted to give in- she just wanted to sleep, and sleep, and sleep…

"Winifred." Shadow said to her- his voice in this darkness waking her slightly. "Do you need help?"

Even in this world, Shadow seemed too intimidating to look in the eye. "I don't even know where I am." she admitted, not taking the time to wonder why she using her voice for the first time in years.

"I'll know."

Winnie looked up at Shadow with wide eyes. "How?"

Now it was Shadow's turn to look away from her. "Long story." he grimly replied. But then he looked back up at her. Once more he repeated, "Do you need help?"

"I..."

Winnie was unable to answer before she was forced out of her trance. Confused, she looked around and realized that she had been trapped in a birdcage suspending high into the air. Classy.

"I don't know what you want with me, but at least let Winnie go. She has nothing to do with this." Sonic's voice demanded, irritation laced in his voice. Brought to attention, Winnie scrambled over to the side of the birdcage and looked down. However humiliating being stuck in a birdcage was, it was nothing compared to the contraption that Sonic was trapped in.

His body was suspended in something that looked like a glass bubble, each of his limbs were restrained in a pod that completely encapsulated his fists and feet, the spacing between not allowing room to even flinch, and on his head was a metallic band connected to the upper portion of the glass bubble. Not far in front of the contraption was Fay'lin, her hand over a dial on a rather long console. The console had far too many buttons to be practical, but there was no doubt they all did something sinister.

"Quite naturally hedgehog," Fay'lin boasted, "She's the reason we're here; might as well give her a front row seat."

"You're a freak, you know that? Not even Egghead is this messed up."

Something in Fay'lin's disposition changed slightly. "Oh, but Sonic," she playfully mused, "Doctor Eggman created this machine."

The blue blur gave an impatient click of his tongue. "'Course. Don't know why I expected anything different..."

The bird Mobian then gave a wide smirk. "You see, this machine is programed as a sort of… electronic Chinese water torture machine. At set intervals -but still on a random basis- you'll receive a slight jolt of pure plasma-based electricity. What's more, the controlled shocks even activate with the slightest muscle movement; you could be receiving shocks for several hours if you dare struggle." Her smirk grew even darker as she goaded, "Go ahead; try to run away from your binds."

Sonic cocked an eyebrow, but did as he was told by attempting to raise his right knee. You could see the electric bolt leave the pod connected to his foot and travel up his body to deliver a nasty shock.

"Yikes!" Sonic shouted in surprise. His sudden jerk from that shock caused another, making him yelp once more. Seeing the machine in action only fueled Fay'lin's blood lust. Eggman was a genius, he really, truly was.

"If you try to run, crack a smile, or even if your heart so much decides to race, you will get shocked." Fay'lin then warned him. "This beautiful machine will keep shocking you until you're an inch away from death- and then you'll know. Then you'll never think about disobeying the Eggman Empire ever again."

"Sounds incredibly humane." Sonic sneered. Fay'lin cast him a frown as she ramped the dial up a bit more before giving him a serious jolt. This shock had been worse than the previous ones- Sonic screamed.

Winnie let out a single sounded yell as she tried to reach out to Sonic. Once her fingers were an inch out of the cage, an invisible barrier gave her a shock as well. It was only a small jolt -like the kind you'd experience from a joke toy- but the sting was persistent. This brought her to the attention of both Fay'lin and Sonic. Fay'lin only looked to be more pleased while color almost visibly drained from Sonic's face.

"As for you," Fay'lin then mused, turning her attention to Winnie, "There's not much I can do while you are still tethered to Gerald's biological failure."

"Gerald…?" Sonic muttered to himself, wondering how the name sounded familiar for a moment.

"And so you will stay there. Perhaps I'll just let you die of hunger- not my preferred method, but all the more satisfying with your boyfriend here. It will be interesting to see who expires first."

Winnie growled down at Fay'lin, an act of opposition and defiance. Someone in this room was going to expire, all right, and it wasn't going to be her or Sonic. Fay'lin noted this small change and gave a dark chuckle to herself.

"There it is," she mused, "That little spark of defiance. Such an admirable thing to have… before you're captured, of course. Otherwise it's pretty useless."

As if on cue, a jolt of electricity zapped Sonic. Fay'lin turned to look at him for a moment. "Oh good, the intervals have started." she said, mostly to herself. To Sonic and Winnie she said, "This is where I make my leave. But rest assured, I'll be back for… adjustments."

Giving a villainous laugh, Fay'lin left with a dramatic turn of her heel and an incredibly gratuitous slam of the door. Silence was quick to take over, causing an incredibly discomforting ring in Winnie's ear.

"We'll think of a way out of here Winnie." Sonic then encouraged her, craning his neck to get a better view of the birdcage. "Nothing can separate us!"

For a moment, Winnie's heart felt light at his words. It was just like Sonic to give words of encouragement in the worst of situations. But then she frowned. Carefully, she moved her hand far enough out that the invisible barrier didn't touch her, but enough that Sonic could still see, and started to finger spell 'S-O-R-R-Y'

"Sorry?" he repeated once he interpreted the message. "Why would you be sorry?"

Winnie started to reply, but her hand was shaking too much. The tears clouding her vision made her refuse to look at him, instead retreating back inside the birdcage. Her quiet muffles could still be heard.

"Hey..." Sonic tried to soothe, "It'll be okay Winn. If we can't figure something out, then our friends will. It'll take some time, sure, but in the end everything will be alright. Trust me!"

As the second interval went off, sending a painful jolt through Sonic's body, Winnie flinched at the sound of his discomfort. The sounds of her weeping only continued to echo through the otherwise quiet room. Hearing her bothered Sonic more than he cared to admit; if this was anyone's fault, it was his. If not his, then Fay'lin for being a sick and twisted Eggman sympathizer.

But this wasn't the time for if and if nots, this was the time to figure out a way out of here. And the longer he had to think about it, and the more Winnie continued to cry, Sonic realized with a jolt of his own on just how dire this situation was.

He hoped their friends would find them soon enough, otherwise he and Winnie may just be screwed.


	9. Code Blue

**A/N:**

**I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT I'M HORRIBLY SORRY FOR THE REFERENCE TO LOLLIPOP BY F(X) (featuring SHINee) DURING THIS CHAPTER. It was one of the first scenes I wrote while coming up with this fic (and, honestly, I wanted a moment of pure Sonic snark), and I didn't look up the translated lyrics until far too late.**

**Suffice to say, it's a wildly inappropriate song for Sonic and Winnie's situation, even if one of them was super hungry.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

When Sonic couldn't run, his mind tended to run even faster. Not in a very organized way, mind you, he wasn't Tails for a reason. To try to curtail some of the more aggressive thoughts, Sonic tried to talk to Winnie. 'Tried' being the operative word. He hadn't seen any movement from her since he was able to stop her from crying. As much as he wished she would give him some sign of life, he made do with the silence by telling her his life story. He told her about how Christmas Island used to be his home before Eggman (going under the moniker Robotnik at the time) decided to capture and torture the animals living there. His story went on to include how he met Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and even Shadow.

Even the zaps couldn't stop him from laughing at his favorite memories. They could take them with his cold, unfeeling fingers for all he cared.

He wasn't going to admit it out loud anytime soon, but Sonic could start to feel the jolts taking their toll on his body. It was getting harder to keep his head up to keep an eye on the birdcage. It got harder to talk, so him telling Winnie about his life story stopped around the time he got to Silver. Come to think of it, how _did_ he meet Silver? He could have thought about it more, but that only made his head spin.

The silence that would come into the room was the worst- with Sonic no longer able to talk over it, the reminder that the two did not have a lot of time left lingered. It was going to drive Sonic insane. Even now, twenty-five shock intervals since he stopped talking, there was something starting to buzz somewhere above him. It took some time for him to realize that it wasn't his hearing going bad; instead, it was Winnie humming to herself. Whatever song it was, it sure did seem to be quite the toe tapper.

"What'cha singing there?" Sonic hazarded to ask, craning his neck up slightly so he could look at her.

Carefully, reaching her hand out far enough for him to see but not get shocked, Winnie started to finger spell 'F-X-L-O-L-L-I-P-O-P'

As much as Sonic tried, he couldn't suppress the chuckle at the reply. He was awarded with a nasty shock right after. Hearing the buzz, Winnie worriedly tried to look over at him. For the most part, he had been able to stay still, but the shocks that happened when he did flinch proved to be the worst ones. This was the first time in awhile that Winnie had moved to look at him again. So that was some sort of progress, right? Too bad that look she was giving him sent a crawl of his back.

Sonic tried to ignore her concerned expression by musing, "What a fun song to sing while one of us is connected to an electric torture machine, and the other is suspended in a birdcage, Winifred."

The expression Winnie had was ambiguous at best while she carefully finger spelled, 'I-M-H-U-N-G-R-Y' and, as if on cue, her stomach started to growl. What followed next was a furious round of electronic zapping as Sonic went into an uncontrollable laughter. Winnie feared he was losing his mind at this point. He only tried to calm himself when he could no longer discern the pain in his sides from his laughing fit or from the electromagnetic shocks.

"Thanks," Sonic tried to say as he gasped for air, "I needed that."

Winnie didn't say (or rather, sign) anything in response. Another shock interval later and she tapped against the birdcage to get his attention.

"What's up?" he asked.

His friend hesitated for a moment, but then she held up her hand. For a moment, Sonic assumed that she was going to wave at him- that was before she put down her middle and ring fingers. The blue blur felt his heart stop upon seeing the one gesture that even those not well versed in sign language knew. That was when everything in his body felt far too heavy to bear anymore.

"Winnie, buddy..." he tried to say, attempting to put her down gently, but the words couldn't come out. He couldn't say them. How funny it seemed when they were the exact same words he'd tell Amy every time he saw her. But to Winnie? In _this_ situation? He just couldn't.

For the first time in a long, long time, Sonic was defeated.

"Hey... Winn?" he then decided to say, "I don't think I can stay awake much longer."

Immediately alarmed, Winnie almost swung the birdcage as she leaned over the side. Her head shaking and her fingers desperately signing 'no' over and over. It hurt even more knowing that Sonic was not going to try to look up at her.

"In the event that I don't wake up," he then went on- the exhaustion becoming more apparent as he talked, "Know that you were one of the best buddies I've known."

The tears flowing down Winnie's eyes were beginning to sting at this point. She couldn't bother to wipe them away as she tried to get Sonic's attention- anything to keep him awake. Anything to keep him _alive_. But he ignored her, forcing Winnie to watch as Sonic relaxed his body in preparation for the next shock interval. When the inevitable happened, she waited for him to move; any sign that he was still with her. But he didn't. Sonic's body hung limp on the machine and all Winnie could do was watch.

No... No, no, no, no!

Winnie moved to the other side of the cage, holding her head in her hands as the tears ran down her face. Sonic was gone. The world's greatest hero was _gone_ and there was nothing she could do. How was she going to tell everyone when she got out? _Was_ there even a way for her to escape? She and Sonic would have been home free ages ago if she had the same abilities as him, or Amy, or even Shadow…

Wait. Shadow?

_There's not much I can do while you are still tethered to Gerald's biological failure_, was what Fay'lin said. But what did it mean? That was when Winnie remembered something that her nurse had said so long ago; _They say he was created to heal the whole world._

One drop of his blood was enough to cure most common illnesses, and Winnie knew she had been given far more than that. Winnie bit her lower lip as she went into thought; Fay'lin had been giving them visits at semi-regular times to increase the shock output given to Sonic, but now that he was unconscious, would the intervals still activate? How much longer did she have until Fay'lin came back? Even if Winnie was 'tethered' to Shadow, would it be enough to signal him somehow? How would he even be able to find them?

What else did she have to lose?

Winnie decided that if she was connected to Shadow in some way, she wouldn't do it while panicking. Slowly, purposefully, the Mobian started to control her breathing. She closed her eyes and tried to block out the deafening silence around her. In her mind she imaged a completely empty space where she was able to stretch her legs. There, waiting for her in the white space, was Shadow. He looked over her as if searching for something before looking her dead in the eye.

"Do you need my help?" he asked in a still tone. Even while feeling rather calm, Winnie started to cry as she flew over to Shadow, clinging on to him as if he could fly them away to somewhere much more safe.

"Yes." she wept. "Yes, yes, please. Please help us. Shadow… Shadow please..."

The hedgehog watched her for a moment before carefully taking her by the shoulders. Eyes blinded by tears met eyes that burned with a hatred not intended for her. Shadow placed his hands against the side of Winnie's head, tilted her head forward a bit, then gave her a small, secure kiss on the forehead.

"Hold out for a little longer," he said to her, "We're coming."


	10. Marbles On Glass

**A/N:**

**I need more Sonic and Avatar cutscenes in my life, and I blame this fic for it.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

Winnie did not have to wait long to hear a commotion at the door. The sounds of firearms and metal bursting into flames could be heard in the otherwise still room. Like a child staring at a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, hoping to spot Santa Claus, Winnie kept her attention at the door. She sat up straighter when she saw sparks coming off the door, rising into a large arc and coming back down. There was a sound of the door being kicked down; Winnie flinched. When she looked again, there coming out of the dust was one Shadow the Hedgehog.

The Mobian let out a cry of relief as she tried to get Shadow's attention. Shadow immediately turned his attention to the birdcage and, upon assessing the situation, started to prepare a Chaos Spear. Winnie recognized this as she started to frantically wave her hands- it wasn't her that he needed to save. Raising a curious eyebrow, Shadow stood down as he tried to figure out what Winnie was doing. Desperate, she finger spelled 'S-O-N-I-C' and pointed to the machine the blue hedgehog was strapped to.

Shadow raised an eyebrow before turning to the direction she pointed in. Winnie could feel her stomach churn as Shadow's eyes grew wide with horror. Quickly, Shadow induced Chaos Control to get closer to the birdcage.

"What do we do?" he demanded.

'C-O-N-S-O-L-E' came the quick finger spell, along with a point to the console in question. Without wasting a moment, Shadow turned around and fired his Chaos Spears at the contraption. The spears were exact toward their mark, the console bursting into flames in seconds of being hit. With the console rendered useless, the glass bubble that held Sonic started to crack. Shadow reacted by going under the glass bubble, not having to wait long for Sonic to fall out, and catching the blue hedgehog with relative ease.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Everyone's attention snapped to the broken doorway; there stood a pissed Fay'lin, her feathers looking ruffled in the worst of ways. Winnie trembled at seeing her old boss like that, Shadow barely blinked.

"Fay'lin." Shadow said, placing Sonic on the ground. "We've found a lot of information about you."

"I bet you have." the bird growled, stepping further into the room. Shadow, too, stepped closer to her; there was a darkness in his eyes that would have scared anyone. It was a warning too; back away now and you may get to live. Just maybe. Shadow wasn't known for being polite, after all.

"If you give up now and go quietly, I promise not to hurt you too much." Shadow sneered.

"As if I would go out quietly." Fay'lin argued with a snarl of her own, pulling out her modified pistol without fear.

Shadow didn't even hide the fact that he rolled his eyes at her. Utilizing Chaos Control, Shadow disappeared from his spot and reappeared right behind Fay'lin. The bird Mobian was disoriented for a moment and had waited far too long to react before Shadow rammed his elbow into the base of her neck. Winnie clasped her hands over her mouth as Fay'lin fell to the ground unconscious.

"She's not dead." Shadow announced to no one in particular as he picked up her pistol. In a smooth motion, he bent the weapon in two as if it had been made out of twigs instead of solid iron. With both the weapon and villain incapacitated, Shadow then returned his attention to getting Winnie out of the birdcage.

Apparently, it was simply a matter of undoing the lock since the console that controlled pretty much everything in the room had been obliterated.

Shadow set Winnie down on the ground, make some basics checks to make sure she was alright, then walked away.

"This is Shadow." he said into his communicator. "The threat has been neutralized, but we may need medical assistance ASAP."

"You got it honey." Rouge's voice said from the other end. "I'll send out Tails with medvac and extraction."

"Good." came Shadow's rough reply before ending the call. Finished with what he needed to do, the dark colored hedgehog turned back to Winnie. The Mobian had almost immediately gone to Sonic's side after Shadow had gotten her out, and now she was looking over the blue blur in worry. What was driving Shadow nuts was the fact that he could almost feel the grief come off of her.

"He's alive." Shadow said to her. Winnie looked up at him with a confused and unsure expression. The hedgehog rolled his eyes before moving over to her. "He has a pulse," he elaborated, "It's weak, but persistent. Sonic will survive."

Winnie continued to look at Shadow before looking back down at Sonic. She knew that Shadow was right, but until Sonic was awake again, nothing would make her feel better about the situation.

. . .

"You will never be able to stop us!" Fay'lin cried, loud enough for the whole Resistance to hear. "Once Starline finds Eggman, all of you are done for! All of you!"

"Sure, sure, honey." Rouge sighed as she filed her nails. "Just keep walking."

Fay'lin released a feral growl that scared everyone in the vicinity, spare for her escorts Rouge and E-123 Omega. Winnie was walking opposite of the trio and minding her own business before Fay'lin recognized her.

"YOU!" the insane bird screeched, causing Winnie to stop dead in her tracks. "I'LL KILL YOU WITH MY OWN BARE HANDS IF I NEED TO! MARK MY WORDS!"

"Would you _shut up_?" Rouge now asked in a much darker voice, using her nail file to hit the bird Mobian upside the head. Fay'lin whipped her head around to give Rouge a devastating glare.

"HoW dArE yOu…?!"

Winnie flinched as she watched the group make a turn and out of earshot. She nearly jumped out of her skin when someone put a gentle hand on her shoulder. With a sigh, she found that it was only Tails.

"How you doing buddy?" the young fox asked.

'Fine.' Winnie's communication screen displayed, despite her not looking fine in the slightest. Tails picked up on this but didn't say anything about it directly.

"Have you gone to see Sonic recently?" Tails then asked, motioning for Winnie to walk with him. As the two walked, the Mobian shook her head. This prompted Tails to wonder, "Why not?"

'Amy.'

"Oh..."

It was no surprise to anyone that Amy had become comatose Sonic's most frequent visitor. Some times you could hear her crying through the door, wishing that Sonic would just wake up already. Almost because of it, Winnie had become the least frequent visitor, right after Shadow. The other reason? Guilt. Lots and lots of guilt.

"The doctor said that he's going to wake up soon." Tails noted, sounding like he was speaking a thought more than speaking to Winnie. "If you want to go see him, you might want to do it soon."

That was when Winnie gave Tails a concerned look. He noticed it quickly enough before waving his arms. "I didn't mean it like that!" he quickly claimed. "I meant that, if you wanted to be there when he woke up, now would be the time to go! I can understand if you don't want to see Sonic just laying there of course, but I'm just saying..."

This time, it was Winnie who put a calm hand on Tails's shoulder. Maybe she'll visit Sonic; she just hoped that she wouldn't become a blubbering mess like Amy when she did so.


	11. Until You Find Me

**A/N:**

**Last chapter! For now, at least, I might do three-ish encore chapters before ending proper (Sonic had promised Winnie a private adventure, after all!) but for now the story will be marked as finished. Since I'd like to post the encore chapters in succession (either all on the same day or three days in a row), the ETA on the encore chapters is around the week of Christmas; I'm stuck on part 3. x_x  
**

**Thank you to those who read while I was uploading the chapters, and to those in the future who get the spoils of reading the full fic in one sitting. Thank you for your lovely reviews, favorites, follows, and above all else;  
**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

The hallways were almost too quiet this time of day. Winnie knew why, of course, what with most of the Resistance members dealing with Badnik attacks in several scattered villages, but it did not stop the lingering feeling of eeriness as she went to Sonic's room.

"Winifred." Shadow called to her. Confused for a moment, Winnie stopped and turned around. She waited while he came up to her. For a long time, the two just stared at each other. It was Shadow who broke the silence;

"Our bond link is fading, which means that you will no longer need me."

'What bond link?' the holographic screen beside Winnie read, clearly reciting her thoughts. Shadow gave a small, hardened sigh, but he did tell her.

"A long time ago, I was created to be the saving grace for a dying girl named Maria." he explained, his voice toneless and his face even less expressive. "To be sure that I could be there when she needed me most, her grandfather (my creator) placed in me the ability to create a psychological bond to link us together. It was effective; there are days when I can still feel her residing in me."

Winnie recoiled slightly. She didn't know what happened to Maria, and by Shadow's jaded attitude, she felt like she didn't _want_ to know.

"As with Maria, I also created a link between us as you recovered from Fay'lin's first attack." Shadow went on. "Unlike the bond I had with Maria, ours will fade the healthier you become. I wanted to tell you that that time is drawing near; the way you called me when you and Sonic were trapped will never happen again."

For a moment, Winnie had to remember what Shadow was talking about. When she did, she looked back up at him with some sense of realization and shock. Without her willingly doing so, Winnie's screen then displayed the question, 'Could you fix my voice?'

"It doesn't work like that." Shadow informed her. "What happened to your larynx is out of my capabilities- come back to see me if you contract NIDS."

'So Sonic?'

"Not my problem."

Winnie bit her lower lip as she tried to connect the remaining pieces. So Shadow _had_ been a blood donor when she had a transfusion, and because of his conditioning to heal others, he had used that as the beginning link to connect them psychologically. Made perfect sense. Sort of… Well, it wasn't a perfect explanation anyway, but better than none. Right?

'Thank you.'

Shadow gave a huff before turning on his heel. "Never tell anyone about this," he added before making his leave. "Or else you might not be as lucky next time."

As Shadow left, Winnie could feel herself smile a little. It was nice to know that Shadow had a kinder side to him- she just hoped that she would never get on his bad side. Winnie then shook her head; enough introspecting Shadow, she had someone she needed to visit.

There wasn't much of an issue in finding Sonic's room, and she opened the door without much fear of anyone else being in there. It wasn't until after Winnie closed the door behind her that she realized she had no idea what you did when visiting a comatose patient. It's not like you could talk to them, not really. And as seeing she did not envy Amy for just sitting and weeping the entire time of her visits, such a notion was lost on her as well. On feet that only seemed to become more unsteady the closer she got to the blue blur, Winnie went to Sonic's side.

'Hi.' she feebly tried to communicate with her holographic screen, even giving his body a small wave. Just the attempt felt so… wrong, so she quickly abandoned the idea and turned her attention elsewhere.

On the table beside his bed were several get well baskets and flowers, along with cards that wished everyone's favorite blue hero the best of wishes. Not that he could read or appreciate any of it. Unsure of what else to do, Winnie went through and read a few of them.

_He's so out of my league_, she thought to herself as she went over a card from a nearby village. As she set the card down, her eyes were drawn to a rather large bouquet of roses… sent to Sonic by Amy. Winnie closed her eyes as she looked away from the display. She sat down on the side of Sonic's bed and started to bury her head in her hands.

Why was she even here? It's not like just sitting here and watching him was going to make Sonic wake up anytime sooner. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't even _be_ like this. Fay'lin had always led Winnie straight into death's door, and each time Winnie would survive while the others fell. Maybe the world would be better off if Winnie just...

"So, either I'm not dead, or the afterlife's got some pretty familiar faces."

Winnie whipped her head around so quickly that she almost snapped her spine. True to form, Sonic only looked back her with a lopsided smile; a byproduct of the lifesaving drugs he was on, surely. Seeing him awake though? Winnie couldn't hold back her tears as a wide smile of her own spread across her face.

"Okay pal, so here's the deal," Sonic then playfully told her, attempting to sit up a bit, "You go out and get the doctor- make sure you get Knuckles and Shadow too, and maybe however else you can get a hold of except Amy and Tails. Then you'll all come back in here and once you give me the signal, that's when I slowly start to get up like I'm in one of those zombie horror movies, right? And then, (this is the best part) I do this low growl thing, and say 'Braiiiins!' What do you think?"

Winnie started to laugh in between her sobs, causing her to almost choke on her own tears. She couldn't stop shaking her head at the idea either. He was just being so… nonsequitur. Almost ignoring Winnie's half choking, laughing, and crying fit, Sonic then went on to say;

"No, you're right; Knuckles would totally punch my face in if I did that. And Shadow? Well, who knows what Shadow will do, amirite?"

At this point, not even Winnie knew if she was laughing or crying anymore. Patient, Sonic waited for her to regain some amount of emotional control again before taking her by the hand. The gentleness from the gesture shocked Winnie enough that she immediately stopped to look at him.

"Hey Winnie," Sonic then carefully tried to say, "We made it."

A single tear ran down her face before Winnie threw an arm around Sonic for a tight hug. Normally, had it been anyone else, Sonic would have gently pushed her off and insisted that he wasn't the hugging sort. But Winnie _wasn't_ just anyone else, she was Sonic's favorite running partner, one of the best buddies he'd known, and he'd do anything to bring out her genuine, happy, and unrestrained laughter for a few precious moments.

Sonic gave himself a bemused smirk as he returned Winnie's hug. So this was love, huh? A little bone crushing, but he could deal with it. Good thing he had already promised Winnie a date...


	12. ENCORE: Cashing a Rain Check

**A/N: **

**ENCORE! ENCORE! ENCORE! Here it is, the last three chapters of this story for good! It does come with a small warning though: these last few chapters are very blatantly SonicxAvatar, no if, ands, or buts about it. If you initially came to this fic not wanting Sonic and the Avatar to hook up, then you can leave now with no judgement on my part (these chapters were written to be kinda separate for a reason).**

**While writing these chapters, I referred to the first as 'The Proposal', the second 'The Date', and the third 'The Aftermath' before giving them their proper titles. Take of this as you will...  
**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Winnie looked up at the large monitor the Resistance used to keep track of its members. Her fingers fidgeted with each other as she read the names off; Knuckles, Amy, and Team Chaotix were off helping separate settlements with Badnik attacks. Tails had requested a 'do not disturb' notice while he worked in his workshop. Silver was in a training room with Shadow and Rouge. The only names she recognized, but were not up on the monitor, were hers and…

"Whatcha lookin' at Winn?"

The female Mobian turned around to see Sonic the Hedgehog come on over to her. Seeing him up and moving made Winnie smile in greeting.

"Is this that dispatch monitor that Ames was talking about?" the blue blur then asked as his attention was drawn to the monitor as well. "Wow, everyone's up on that list, huh?"

'Except for us.' a holographic display screen, with words large enough for most people to read, beside Winnie read.

"That's 'cuz we're supposed to be elsewhere right now." Sonic snorted. "Plans kinda get changed when a lunatic comes after you, and it's not the one you're used to. Kinda ruins the flow of things, you know?"

A sudden ache in Winnie's heart illustrated that she knew exactly what he was talking about. Two weeks ago, someone from Winnie's past had tracked her down to get to Sonic. Fay'lin, as she was called, was an assassin of sorts that knowingly killed other Mobians for her own purposes. She almost killed Sonic. Thankfully, Winnie was able to get back up to rescue both her and Sonic, but by then Sonic was an inch away from death and barely holding on to life. Now? Now he was acting so much like his usual self, you never would have guessed that Sonic had been comatose two weeks before.

"Looks like everyone's busy, bummer." Sonic noted, bringing Winnie out of her daze. Giving a small noise of mild annoyance, the hedgehog then turned to Winnie herself to say, "Hey Winnie, remember how I said that we would go some place after you got out of the hospital?"

For a moment, the Mobian had to remember what he was talking about. When Winnie had first come back into contact with Fay'lin, the dangerous Mobian had broken nearly every bone in Winnie's body. For a week after that, Winnie had to recover at a nearby hospital- that was when she met back up with Sonic. Sonic, at the time, had offered to take them anywhere she wanted once she was discharged. She hadn't thought much about it since then and was almost ashamed that she had forgotten about it.

Winnie gave Sonic a nod; she remembered now, now that he mentioned it.

"Whelp," the hedgehog mused, "Since there aren't any morons who'd want to spoil our fun right now, now would be the time to cash that in."

Winnie gave him a bewildered look. 'Now?'

"Well… no, not _now _now." Sonic admitted with a sheepish grin. "But give it some thought though- before the next nuisance of the day arrives."

The female Mobian gave a nod of agreement.

"Great!" Sonic declared as he held his fist up. Winnie looked at it before looking back at him with a smile, bringing up her own fist for a mutual fist bump. Satisfied, the blue hedgehog gave his friend a two finger salute before heading on out.

Winnie gave a small smile at his leave. But then a small frown appeared as she was left to her thoughts; where do you take someone who can have a leisurely run around the world in 15 minutes or less?

. . .

The travel brochures she had scattered around where from before the war, so who knew if any of these places were still good to travel to. Winnie rather figured that the lands more populated by Mobians would be out of the question- they were the first places Eggman invaded during the war. Would it have been safer to go to some of the human settlements that had been neutral territory? She didn't know, and now she just looked over the brochures in dismay. Why did Sonic offer to take her somewhere when she, of all people, had the least world travel experience? Even Silver knew more about the different cultures in their world than she did...

"Are you planning a trip somewhere?" the friendly voice of Amy asked from over Winnie's shoulder. The other Mobian nearly jumped out of her skin in surprise. Of all the people to ask what she was doing, it just had to be Amy.

_Do I tell her that Sonic is taking me somewhere, or…?_

'Where do you take someone that's been everywhere?'

Amy read the message from Winnie's holographic screen before letting out a thoughtful hum. "Well, if they've been everywhere by themselves," Amy then thoughtfully decided, "Then it wouldn't matter because they haven't been there with _you_. Why? Who's the lucky guy?"

Winnie flinched. Without Amy noticing, Winnie turned off the holographic display on her watch just so the display wouldn't betray her and scream 'Sonic' over and over. She had no idea how Amy would react when the pink hedgehog had been after the blue blur since they first met, and Winnie just showed up one day. In all due respect, Winnie didn't even know Sonic liked her like that.

"Well then," Amy decided as she sorted through the travel brochures, "I would go to Soleanna. A lot of the Resistance members were invited for a big party the princess is throwing. It's meant to honor those who fought during the war- it'll be perfect!"

Amy picked up the brochure about Soleanna and handed it to Winnie with a smile. "Since Soleanna has a vast water canal network, they plan on allowing floating lanterns to flow through. I bet it'll look really pretty around sunset." Amy's smile grew even fonder. "I think that if you can get your guy on top of a roof, then the both of you release a floating lantern, he'd be eating out of your palm before it hits the ground."

Winnie gave Amy a curious glance, wondering if the pink hedgehog had imagined just a scenario between her and Sonic, and had just unknowingly told someone who could do just that. Not that Winnie would- what Amy would do to woo Sonic was Amy's business for all Winnie cared. Winnie herself wasn't even trying to woo Sonic- all of this had been his idea from the get go. If anyone was trying to woo anyone, it would have been Sonic trying to get at…

Nope.

Not going to go there.

Shaking herself from thoughts she didn't want, Winnie then turned to Amy and gave her a small thumbs up of approval.

_I wonder if anyone in Soleanna would recognize Sonic?_

. . .

Sonic had the oddest feeling that he was not getting up to his max speed. Then again, he _had_ been in a coma two weeks ago after a forced shock therapy. Most everyone told him that he needed to take his recovery slow; too bad Sonic wasn't synonymous with slow, otherwise he might have listened to them.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic noticed Winnie waiting outside of Resistance HQ. She seemed to be deep in thought as she kept an eye out on the horizon- looking for him, no doubt. With a cheerful smirk, Sonic changed his path and headed toward Winnie without a second thought. He came to a screeching halt just inches from her; to his amusement, Winnie didn't even flinch.

"What's shaking?" he asked with a smug smile. Winnie pressed a button on her watch that activated her holographic communication screen (wait, why did she have it off?) and allowed it to display a message;

'Let's go to Soleanna.'

Sonic gave an outstanded blink. "Really?" he asked. "It's kinda drab there- went for a festival a few years back and there wasn't much to look at." He then paused for a moment before a smile crossed his face. "Besides the princess of course, but I couldn't get a good look at her from where I was."

But Winnie had made up her mind.

'Plenty of room to run.'

The blue blur folded his arms as he thought about it. "True..." he agreed. "Unless you're going at the speed of snail, of course."

'Do you go at the speed of snail?'

A playful glimmer was caught in his eye as he looked back at her. "Is my name not Sonic?"

That was when Winnie also gave him a teasing grin, a spark of amusement cast in her eye as well. 'No. It's Maurice.'

Sonic had to turn away from her to hide his amused snort.

"Alright Winifred, you've changed my mind." Sonic decided with a wide grin. "Tomorrow we head to Soleanna- just you and me!"

The happy grin Winnie then had on her face quickly became one of Sonic's favorite smiles.


	13. ENCORE: The Burning Question

**A/N:**

**I don't have anything witty to say. Happy holidays to those who celebrate those things.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

The breeze coming off the canals and over the bridge smelled of both salt and something that faintly resembled chlorine. To the people that lived here, the smell was so familiar that they had ignored it- but to the tourists it gave a sense of renewal and prosperity. Sonic was a tourist that acted like a local. While the cool, clean air fueled him, he did not stop running through the many alleyways and bridges to admire any of the scenery. Winnie watched with some amusement as she sat on top of one of Soleanna's flat roofed houses. There was an odd curiosity in keeping track of the blue blur; like watching a mouse run through a maze in search of a prize.

Eventually, Sonic decided that he had had enough running around and started to jump up to the roofs. It did not take long for him to sit next to Winnie- both of them looking out on the citizens below them. From here, you could see almost all of the main city in some amount of awe.

"So, I don't think this place is _as_ drab as I thought," Sonic mused as he made himself comfortable, "But I still don't get why they'd have a big shindig for war veterans anyway? Most everyone that fought in the war was one of us, and yet Soleanna's pretty much all human."

Winnie shifted a bit, her hands knitting into each other, as she gave a thoughtful hum. Beside her -and in Sonic's line of view- Winnie's communication screen read, 'Soleanna helped develop the initial blueprint that became Wispons.'

"Really?" the blue blur questioned in wonder. "Huh, learn something new everyday."

Winnie kept to herself that she once overheard someone say that it was because Soleanna's reigning princess had an admiration for Sonic, which helped inspire the country's involvement. It completely baffled her that anyone (especially a human to Mobian) could hold so much admiration toward someone they had never met. Then again, this was Sonic's legacy we're talking about; who knows what kind of unintentional sway he had over people he's never known. She personally had seen very little reference to the hero before she helped rescue him during the war; Sonic the Hedgehog had been a myth at best, like Santa Claus or gremlins. And yet, here she was, sitting next to him on a rooftop as if they were on a date.

"You know," Sonic mused with a click of his tongue, "I'm not very good at small talk, but I think some things need to be said and all. So let's start with… Infinite. I guess; he was a common enemy for awhile. What'd ya think about that guy?"

Winnie winched in remembering Infinite. 'Common enemy' had been a vast understatement- without Infinite she would have had no reason to be here with Sonic. It was funny to think how fate worked some times. Winnie looked back over at Sonic, her legs were folding and her expression was thoughtful as the screen in front of her read, 'No personal space.'

"Agreed." Sonic chuckled before he laid on his back. Winnie imitated him before a certain thought crossed her mind. A smile then etched on Winnie's face as her screen appeared above them.

'His voice was delicious.'

Seeing this made Sonic shoot back up again. He gave her a face that didn't know whether to be amused or genuinely surprised. "Are you serious?!" he questioned- his voice not sounding any more certain. Winnie didn't seem to acknowledge him.

'He reminded of this guy called Dimitri Allen.'

"That in no way answers my question Winifred!"

Another smile returned to her face. 'Some times I have dreams about him.'

"Oh no, you go back to that 'his voice is delicious' comment, buddy! I demand to know more!"

At this point, it was more than obvious that Winnie was ignoring Sonic now- what with her playful smiling and light laughter. She found the situation so amusing that she couldn't make her communication screen show the other thoughts she had about Infinite. Sonic cocked an eyebrow at her but soon gave a small shrug of indifference.

"Fine," he decided, "Don't answer me. You just keep your weird fantasies to yourself, see if I care."

Winnie gave a rather unflattering snort. 'Jealous?'

"Of what?" he then scoffed. "Your dirty mind is your own prerogative. But, I do gotta wonder; do you know how to sing?"

Winnie gave Sonic and odd look before she shook her head. 'I used to play the piano.'

"I figured." Sonic mused. At the small sound of Winnie's confusion, he explained, "When you sign stuff," (he emphasized this by finger spelling his own name) "You're very exact about it- I think the smart guy word for it is 'dexterous.' Wondered if you played an instrument or something. Better than assuming you played with something else, of course."

For a moment, Winnie looked at him in confusion. It was his cocky smile that made her flush a deep pink in realization. She didn't know who had the dirtier mind here; Sonic for implying it, or herself for over thinking it. Then again, they may have already been on the train of thought…

"Whelp, that was a nice distraction." Sonic then mused as he started to get up, forcing Winnie out of her reverie. He then turned to her and offered a hand to help her get up. Once Winnie was to her feet, Sonic then asked, "You wanna race?"

'To where?'

The blue blur then pointed to some located to the west of them. "The festival is gonna start soon, so we might as well head back to town center. Whoever gets their first wins. What'd ya say?"

Winnie looked out to where he was pointing, and then looked back to Sonic. 'I want a head start.'

Seeing this, Sonic gave a smirk. "Deal." he agreed. "I'll give you about… 30 seconds. Start running Winifred."

She didn't need to be told twice, leaping off the rooftop and performing an excellent roll once she hit the ground. Winnie didn't waste time getting back to her feet, her path not quite clear but her determination strong. It was Sonic who now had the advantage of watching his friend run through Soleanna's alleyways; admittedly, he chuckled a bit before going after her.

There was no surprise between them when Sonic sped past Winnie a moment after he started running after her. In fact, Winnie had anticipated as much before taking advantage of the slipstream the hedgehog left behind. This way she could easily keep up with Sonic and -at certain times when he slowed down just slightly- was able to run directly beside him. It was nice running with a famed hero when the two of you weren't infiltrating a mad doc's liar or taking down one of his cronies.

Using this method, the two of them were at the town plaza in record time, just in time for the first parade float to come on by. Neither of them knew what to expect for the parade; but seeing an inflated version of Infinite with the float below him showing a defeated Sonic was not one of them. The next float after that detailed Sonic's imprisonment on the Death Egg. Something in Winnie's heart clenched, so she turned to Sonic and nudged his arm a little to get his attention. He gave her a confused eyebrow raise before noticing the holographic communication screen next to her.

'What did Eggman do to you?'

"On the Death Egg?" the blue hedgehog guessed. "Nothing much. I mean, besides forcing me to sit through a slide show of 10 terabytes worth of selfies, of course. I think I nearly threw up during the swimsuit portion though."

It was Winnie's turn to raise a confused eyebrow. 'You're not afraid of him?'

"It's not McNosehair I fear anymore, it's the people that actually support him." he admitted, turning attention back to the parade. "Like your old boss, Fay'lin, was it? That chick was messed up; killing other folks for sport, electrocuting me to an inch of my life, making you watch it… Guess what Winn? I really, _really_ hate listening to my friends get upset."

But something in Sonic seemed to soften a little as he gave her a smile.

"You're a really brave kid, you know that?" he then teased. "I wonder how lucky I got having you to find me back then?"

Winnie gave a small shrug of indifference, and was about to display a response before Sonic pulled the two of them in for a surprise kiss. Everything in the female Mobian's body froze while her heart simultaneously started to race faster than it could almost take. The two started to melt into the embrace a bit more; Sonic moving one hand to gently cup the side of her face. He softly opened his eyes for a moment to see that Winnie's watch was displaying a message. So caught up in the moment, her mind had been running a mile a minute, as reflected by the screen's message reading nothing but gibberish. He gave a smile before deepening the kiss- an act most wonderfully rewarded by hearing Winnie's soft moan.

Behind them, a camera shutter went off. The owner of the camera had come to Soleanna with his friends and hadn't called out to Sonic earlier out of respect. But what the young bee had astonished him so much that he HAD to take a photo of the two together. As the photo came out of the instant camera, the young bee still stood in where he was in shock.

Charmy Bee looked down at the developed photo and only continued to gawk. Sure as day, even on the photo, there was Sonic kissing Winifred. The young bee took the photo, stuffed it into a pocket, then turned to go find the rest of Team Chaotix. Still in surprise, he even marveled out loud, "Everyone's gotta know about this!"


	14. ENCORE: Running to the Sunset

**A/N:**

**I had a REALLY hard time writing this chapter; from Silver not wanting to get in the middle of things to writing the ending itself. Three week writer's block aside, I hope it's up to everyone's expectations- I'm not doing do-overs with this ending darn it!**

**And so, for the very last time:**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

When Sonic and Winnie came back to Resistance HQ, everything was dead silent.

"Huh," Sonic mused as he looked over the dispatch monitor, "You think everyone's out? It's _way_ too quiet in here for anyone to be doing anything useful."

Winnie didn't seem to acknowledge him as she idly looked though some papers Amy had left out. The kiss she and Sonic had shared a mere hour before still hung on her lips- its reminder only served to make her want more. But that was absurd; Sonic only kissed her as a means to an end. It didn't mean that he _really_ liked her. Did it? What did she know anyway? Her brain had been reduced to mush once Sonic kissed her, and she was sure she hadn't recovered since.

"Well, according to this everyone _should_ be here," Sonic announced to no one in particular, "But where _are_ they if they're not here?"

Although he didn't see it, Winnie had given a small raise and lower of her shoulder. Her mind trying to focus on whatever notes Amy had left behind. Eventually, something in the notes caught Winnie's eye; curious, she picked up a familiar looking photo and inspected it a bit closer. Once she recognized what the photo was, Winnie let out a squeak of surprise as she dropped it.

"What happened?" Sonic immediately asked as he came over to her. Winnie didn't say or do anything besides stare at the photo she dropped- Sonic looked at her before noticing what she was looking at. When he saw the photo, a conflicted expression crossed his face.

"Well… I guess that explains something."

There on the table was a photo, clear as day, of Sonic and Winnie's kiss back in Soleanna. The question now stood; who took it?

Interrupting their thoughts and speculation, the door of Resistance HQ opened. Sonic and Winnie watched as Silver entered the room- the young hedgehog carrying one crate of something into the room and using his telekinesis to carry four others behind him. Silver was humming some song he knew while he walked to the back of the room.

"Hey Silver." Sonic spoke up. Thoroughly surprised, Silver almost lost his concentration as he whipped around to see the other two.

"Oh, you're back!" Silver remarked. He tried to mask his surprise, but it was a futile effort at best. The young hedgehog turned his attention back to his own business- placing the box he was holding on the ground then setting the other boxes down individually with his powers. Sonic snorted in realizing that Silver was trying to draw out time. For what was something that he planned on learning.

"Seems kinda dead around here," Sonic then pointed out, "I assume the Resistance is still having some peace before heading into the next storm?"

Silver gave a small, almost relieved, chuckle. "Something like that." he admitted. "Did you two enjoy your trip?"

"Who said we went on a trip?" Sonic then asked with a teasing grin growing on his lips.

Silver flinched. He then made do with busywork as he put one box down, decided he didn't like where it was, then moved it somewhere else. "Wasn't it up on the dispatch monitor?"

"Nope. Winnie and I aren't even up there chief. We ditched the Resistance after the war, remember?"

"Really?!" came the shocked answer. Silver then shrunk a bit as he placed his last box down. "I… I didn't know that."

Sonic gave a knowing smirk before running over to Silver- placing himself close enough to the younger hedgehog that he couldn't easily leave.

"Silver, I'm not trying to harass you," he then said, "Well, not intentionally (you're kinda easy fodder at this point), but I would _really_ like to talk to Knuckles or Amy 'bout something. Where. _Are_. They?"

Silver gave Sonic a look to illustrate that he suddenly wished he had the power to shrink or become invisible.

"Amy called everyone to a meeting," the hedgehog caved. "Something about inter-Resistance relationships or something."

Sonic folded his arms as he gave Winnie a serious side glance. He turned his attention back to Silver to question, "Where?"

"I… I don't know."

"Ri-ight, and I'm a mongoose. Silver, I _know_ Amy told you to move those boxes for her; it says 'Inventory Only' on the side. Ames is in charge of inventory. She wanted you to tell them when we would be back- a poor choice on her part, honestly. So, I'm going to ask this one last time Sil, where are they?"

An odd tension filled the air between them. Silver's face twisted into multiple expressions of debate before he finally gave in. "They're in storage room seven. The one where we keep the spare Wispons."

"Atta boy." Sonic grinned as he gave Silver a friendly pat on the shoulder. The blue hedgehog then motioned for Winnie to follow him; she didn't need to be told twice, despite feeling rather bad for Silver.

. . .

"He can't do this!" Amy thundered as she slammed her hands down on a crate.

"Amy," Knuckles tried to mediate, "We don't know the context of the picture. There a hundred reasons why Sonic could have kissed..."

"And how many of them mean he doesn't love her?!" demanded Amy, interrupting the poor echidna before he could finish. "How could he fall in love with someone he met during a _war_?! They barely know each other!"

"You don't really know him either, Amy." Knuckles pointed out. "Sure, you might have known him longer, but…. Tails, help me out here."

The young fox gave a shocked look as he pointed to himself. "Me?" he questioned. "I… I don't know. I mean, I'm no expert in the matter, but have you thought about what Sonic actually wanted? Instead of what you wanted for him?"

Amy gave Tails a glare so dark and ugly that the young fox took three steps backward. Slamming her fists down again, Amy all but screamed, "He doesn't know what he wants, I do!"

"Oh really? Then pray tell, dear Amy Rose, what _do_ I want?"

Everyone whipped their heads to the door; there stood Sonic with an ambiguous expression and his arms folded. Behind him was Winnie, almost wishing that she was anywhere but there. Amy refused to move as Sonic came forward. He placed his hands firmly on the same crate Amy had been abusing, and looked her dead in the eye.

"If you have a problem, I would appreciate it if you said it to my face." Sonic darkly told her.

Amy let out an angered scoff before she headed out the door in fury. Everyone but Sonic flinched when the pink hedgehog slammed the door behind her- after that, the air in the room grew still.

Sonic looked at Knuckles and Tails before saying, "Any others?"

"I have a few questions." Tails spoke up. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Fire away, buddy."

As Tails cleared his throat to get his thoughts out there, Winnie slipped out of the room in hope of catching up with Amy. It didn't take too long- all she had to do was follow the sound of frustrated sobbing. Winnie held her breath as she entered the room. Amy didn't notice that she had come in until the other Mobian placed a small hand on the hedgehog's shoulder.

"What?!" Amy snapped without knowing who was there. Winnie recoiled slightly, but she didn't run like her instincts told her to. Instead, she allowed her communication screen to speak for her.

'Are you mad at me?'

Seeing this, and how utterly terrified Winnie was, Amy immediately defused. With some hesitation she admitted, "No. No, I'm not mad at you. I think… I think I'm more mad at myself, honestly."

The shock on Winnie's face was enough to speak for her. But her screen still read 'Why?' in confusion.

Amy gave a small, sullen laugh to herself before answering. "I always wanted to slow Sonic down. I wanted him to think about the future, and getting married, and having kids- something I know he doesn't want right now. But you? You ran _with_ him. You didn't tell him to change. You didn't tell him to slow down. You ran together, and that's more than I ever could."

_Good Gaia, what have I _done_?_

Giving a small sigh, Amy then started to smile. A small, almost broken smile, but a part of it was… melancholy. Or maybe even defeated admiration.

"Make him really, really happy for me. Okay?"

'Amy…'

But the pink hedgehog did not look back as she left the room. Winnie remained where she was, not sure if she was allowed to move or not. Eventually, she started to leave and back out to the hallway feeling worse than when she was still looking for Amy.

"So you talked with Amy, huh?"

Startled at the sudden voice, Winnie turned to see Sonic there, coming out of his talk with Knuckles and Tails. Winnie gave him a small nod.

"I wish I knew what to do to make her feel better. Besides dropping on a knee and proposing, of course. Which… would probably be a _bad_ idea at this point?" The blue blur gave a hardened sigh. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore." he admitted. He then gave her a smile. "So if I do something really dumb, like not even excusable even in context of saving the world, then please feel free to dump me."

Winnie gave a nod of agreement. 'Ditto.'

Sonic looked back up at gave a fond smile. "We're going to make a great team Winnie." he said to her, moving just a bit closer. "I love you."

The other Mobian could not hide her faint blush as the two gave each other a fond forehead press. There was no looking back anymore. Now that they were together, there was nothing they couldn't do.


End file.
